Much has been made about the fact that Mike McCarthy gave up his beloved play-calling duties this offseason. He handed that role to former offensive coordinator, now associate head coach, Tom Clements.
Clements held the offensive coordinator position and called plays for the Buffalo Bills in 2004 and 2005, so it isn’t as if he has no experience with these duties. However, as we’ve pointed out, Clements’ tenure calling plays for the Bills wasn’t exactly what you’d call successful.
The Bills were 25th in total offense in 2004 and 28th in 2005.
Nonetheless, Clements was handed the keys to a Ferrari and told not to crash it back in February.
Are we concerned?
Clements’ track record isn’t sterling, so of course we’re a little bit concerned.
Really, there’s nothing to worry about though. Aaron Rodgers is going to be coordinating this offense.
It appears whoever actually has the offensive coordinator title (Edgar Bennett) or has the play-calling duties (Clements) for the Green Bay Packers will pretty much only have those in name only. Kind of like the Denver Broncos where, sure, so-and-so is the offensive coordinator and calls the plays, but Peyton Manning is actually fully orchestrating the show from the field.
That will be Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay.
Quarterback, play caller, offensive coordinator.
Clements is downplaying that notion, of course.
“Obviously he’s a veteran and he has a lot of experience and he has thoughts during the week and during the game,” Clements said. “And we try to take all input.”
Clements should downplay that notion. He won’t be getting a head coaching job if general managers think he’s just a job title and that was one of the reasons McCarthy gave him this promotion.
Rodgers, meanwhile, freely admits that he’ll run the offense from the field, but is being diplomatic about it.
“I’ve always had a lot of freedom,” Rodgers said. “It’s just occasionally the personnel groupings restricts some of the checks you can make. But that’s kind of a natural progression for a quarterback who’s been in a system for a long time, if they can handle it to do more things. I have always liked a good starting point for a play, and then have the ability to get us in a better play if you can do it quickly and it’s clean.”
The writing is on the wall here. Rodgers is going to go out there and do what he wants and make everyone look good.
If McCarthy didn’t think that would be the case, he’d still be calling plays himself.
Let Aaron run the show! Go Pack Go!!!
Maybe Aaron should get one of those big laminated cards to hold up in front of his mouth at the line of scrimmage.